


|one more time|

by Echo (Lyrecho)



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Angst, Experimental, Gen, Oneshot, it's set in the canon universe though, life is strange au, prompto-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-20
Updated: 2016-11-20
Packaged: 2018-08-31 23:52:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8598796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lyrecho/pseuds/Echo
Summary: "Dude, holy shit," Prompto swears. "Can you like, see the future or something? Is that a thing the crystal can do?"

  Noctis is just standing there, panting, the photo crumpled up in his hand as he finally lets go of Prompto's collar.

  "I have no fucking clue," he says honestly.
In which Noctis can rewind time, apparently, which is a good thing when his friends have a really bad habit of dying on him. Life is Strange AU. |Tumblr| |Twitter|





	

**Author's Note:**

> [This](http://sealingdesigneejosephine.tumblr.com/post/153399705583/prompto-and-noctis-in-a-life-is-strange-au) post inspired me yesterday to write some things before the XV release (hype!) and since it turned into a monster I decided to post it here for prosperity, even if it isn't _really_ in a story format.

\- So, Prompto and Luna meet, long before Prompto ever really encounters Noctis in person for reals - when the oracle sees the bandage on Pryna’s leg she feels something click into place, and a voice whispers: this boy is important. Rather than writing him a letter explaining everything, she writes him a letter asking to meet.

\- Umbra returns with both the book from Noctis and a response from Prompto.

\- He says yes.

\- Luna has to plan this very carefully. Tenebrae is now under Imperial control, and since she can’t get inside the walls of Insomnia without going through a checkpoint where people will recognise her, she can’t meet Prompto within the city.

\- Nifleheim’s relationship with Lucis hasn’t strained to the point of all out war just yet, and Idola has turned his eyes to the few free provinces and kingdoms left, for now - so the outskirts of the city aren’t a barren wasteland yet, just greenery. They decide to meet there.

\- Prompto brings a picnic.

\- He’s surprised to see that the person he’s been talking to via dog mail is the princess of Tenebrae - he almost drops his picnic in his hurry to bow to her - but Luna waves him off with a smile. She doesn’t have long left outside alone before Ravus realises she is gone, even if Gentiana decided to help her by running interference when she begged because ‘it’s an oracle thing.’ Gentiana is nothing if not faithful to the Old Gods.

\- And the voice she barely thinks of as hers whispers: I told you so as she takes him in. He’s a bit younger than her, the same age as Noctis, and cute, in a shy, chubby way. He’s adorable like Pryna is. Like a puppy - but she is the oracle, and her sight sees further than skin deep.

\- She sees that this boy is meant to become many things - warrior, brother, friend, lover - even if she can’t see to whom he will become those things; however these golden observations are all smeared with the next revelation that comes to her: this boy has been marked by death.

\- The patron goddess of Insomnia, the figurehead the Lucis Kingdom’s religion revolves around - has quite literally laid her hand, placed her mark on this boy.

\- (Prompto sweats, because the princesses gaze is intimidating as she narrows her eyes at him. Is she glaring?)

\- Eventually, Luna knows that she can’t do anything to help this boy, so she simply decides to enjoy the picnic she is sharing with her dog’s savior. As they get to talking, she finds herself talking about Noctis - about how she worries for him - and as Prompto bites at his lip and admits he shares a class with the prince, she gets it, understands why the part of her that is the oracle insists this boy is important. The duty of the oracle, after all, is to serve the one true king as chosen by the holy crystal.

\- “Have you ever thought that maybe, you two should be friends?”

\- Luna leaves, knowing the clock on her freedom is ticking down, and leaves Prompto with a lot to think about.

\- Prompto is nervous about the idea of talking to the prince, given how anti social he is, and his first encounter just proves his worries right. He gets home that afternoon, and stares himself down in the mirror, the shame that’s always at the background of his mind bubbling up with a viciousness it hasn’t felt like in a while.

\- He decides - he’s going to better himself - that will show everyone. He picks up his camera - an heirloom from his mother, one of many, even if probably the only one legal to use in public, given that guns are illegal in Lucis - and snaps a shot as he stand in front of his mirror. He’ll remember every moment of his journey, he decides, and pins the photo his camera spits out to the mirror frame.

\- So it’s the first day of highschool, and Prompto - feeling healthier and better than he has in years - is excited and happy and determined to take ALL OF THE PHOTOS. He wants to keep these memories forever, even if the way some of the kids who had been mean to him in middle school are acting weirds him out, in an uneasy way. He’s polite but deflects, because he knows now, from experience, that their smiles and kind words only see and run skin deep.

\- He has another mission, too: to introduce himself to Prince Noctis, properly this time. His corrospondence with Luna hadn’t stopped, and when he’d told her what had happened, she’d encouraged him to give it another shot, because Noctis probably hadn’t even realised what he’d said could come across as hurtful, he was that socially stunted. While the letter had made him laugh, he hadn’t been ready at the time to try and face the prince again - but he was today, he felt; and besides, he’d already promised Luna. (The last time he hadn’t kept a promise to write back by a certain time, he’d come home to find that Umbra had eaten his homework)

\- So school ends, and everyone floods out for the day, and even though Prompto shares quite a few classes with the prince he never found a good time to talk to him, and feeling dejected he begins to head to the bus stop that will get him home. On his way there, he spots the prince, nd rushes forward, excitement bubbling up again.

\- It’s the easiest thing in the world to snap a selfie before he can even think about why that might be a bad idea - and then, running on autopilot, he hands the prince the picture and starts to run for the bus, with his mind screaming at him ‘you’re such a fucking idiot.’

\- Suddenly, he can’t breathe. His collar has tightened around his throat, and he tilts his head back to see the prince, pale and sweating, panting over him with one hand fisted in his blazer - tilts his head back just in time to notice the car that screams around the corner, going way faster than what could possibly be legal.

\- “Dude,” he says to the prince, wide eyed and before he can stop himself. “Holy shit. Can you, like, see the future or something? Is that a thing that the crystal can do?” (Later, he’ll berate himself for this - though most of Lucis knows about the crystal and how it connects to the royal line, no-one knows specifics - Prompto, however, knows a little bit from conversation with Luna, carried out over months of letters)

\- The prince is pale, with red creeping up on his cheeks as if from exertion and wild eyes when he shakes his head. “I have no fucking clue,” he says, and drops his hand from Prompto’s collar. He barely even notices he can breath again as the prince looks down at his clenched fists and unfurls one hand - showing the selfie Prompto had just taken.

\- And then he says something crazy.

“I watched you die.”

“I stared at the photo.”

\- “Time travel,” Prompto breathes, and the prince - Noctis - is trembling. So is he, come to think of it. Shock? “You can time travel.”

\- At first, it doesn’t change anything. Okay, sure thing, through the use of photos, the crown prince of Lucis can apparently time travel - big deal. He can also teleport and summon weapons, did you know? Prompto writes Luna about the whole time travel thing, the fact that he and Noctis are friends now almost a side note - they’ve clicked so quickly that it feels like they’ve been friends for years, and it just seems natural that everyone around them would already know.

\- Luna writes back - she’s happy for him! For them! She knew they’d become good friends, if they just tried it. ‘Aren’t you sad you didn’t listen to me sooner, huh, Prompto?’

\- Her letter doesn’t mention anything about time travel.

\- Over time, Prompto and Noctis test his powers. He can jump back great distances if he uses photos - but the jump is permanent, and only he can remember the future that he came from. One night, Noctis had turned up on his doorstep in the rain, wild-eyed and soaking wet, dressed like he’d never even heard of what clothes actually were (Prompto fervently thanked the goddess that his father was away on business) - before launching himself straight into Prompto, trembling and sobbing.

Four months. He’d jumped back four months, and no matter how much Prompto begged, he wouldn’t tell him what had happened to shake him up like this.

\- From then on, Prompto’s camera was less of a hobby and more of a weapon. It was with him everywhere he went, always, and he went through rolls and rolls of film in a week, trying to capture every moment he could for Noctis to use as 'respawn’ points if he really, desperately needed to. Noct gave him a wan smile in thanks at the end of every day, when he handed over a wad of glossy photos - sometimes the pile was as much as an inch tall. It got to the point that Prompto could only afford to take so many photos because Noctis was buying them for him, even though he protested (“You’re taking these photos for me, so I can use them, shut up I’m paying goddammit Prompto.”)

\- And that is how he meets Ignis - the scariest man alive.

\- “Please don’t kill me,” Prompto says when he opens his door one morning to a man in spectacles glaring sophisticated death at him, his mind a blank except for those words. The man snorts, and says to him:

“We would like to know why you are taking advantage of his Highness.”

\- There’s an accent to his voice that Prompto doesn’t recognise - Solheim, maybe? - but he just blinks as he realises - they’re talking about Noctis. Oh god, they’re talking about Noctis, they think he’s taking advantage of him -

\- In Prompto’s defense, hysterical laughter was totally an appropriate reaction to that situation.

\- He clears the confusion up, once he eventually calms down, and the man - Ignis - leaves soothed, if confused as to why his prince has selected his own personal royal photographer; namely, a novice (he could, after all, hire a professional should he so desire)

\- Prompto, more amused than he probably should be, pulls out his phone to text Noct that his advisor is on the war path.

??? Is what Noctis texts back.

\- The next day, there is an invitation resting on the welcome mat, slipped under the door due to a lack of a mailbox. It’s expensive looking, made of thick cream card, and written in calligraphy are words that say he is invited to a dinner at the Amicitia household.

\- His mind blanks.

\- The weekend sees him dressed as formally as he ever is (in his school uniform, the neatest and simultaneously the most expensive thing he owns), pressing down on the doorbell of the fancy modern townhouse. The door opens, and he’s ushered in by Violet, the matriarch of the family - approaching fifty and still damn intimidating, even is she’s smiling at him like a mother would. Prompto laughs nervously as she directs him into the lounge, where she says “the boys are waiting for you.”

\- The 'boys’ are inded waiting for him - Noctis sitting on one couch, expression fixed and clearly nervous, with a man he recognises as Ignis and someone even more physically intimidating on the other. Looming on the other. All eyes flick to him as he enters, and a nervous sweat breaks out on the back of his neck as he becomes certain he’s being scape goated.

\- He sits down by Noctis, and the intterogation begins. After several false starts, Noctis finally admits what they’ve known for months, and as his two other friends blink incredulously at him, his hand seeks out Prompto’s for comfort.

\- Prompto squeezes back, and moves to pull his hand away, but Noctis lingers, even as Ignis’ eyes come to rest on their hands where they’re joined. “Are the two of you telling the truth?” He asks finally, and both Prompto and Noctis nod vigorously. “Hmm,” he says thoughtfully, and turns to Gladiolous.

\- After that, even with two new people brought into the fold, not much changes. Luna’s letters still don’t mention time travel, even when he tells her that Gladio and Ignis are now 'in the know’ (and also that he’s welcome back at the Amicitia household whenever - both Violet and Iris had loved him) - though she does congratulate him on making two new friends. Ignis suggests informing the king, but Noctis insists 'no,’ says 'please not just yet,’ and eventually, just lets the subject drop.

\- Years pass. Exams and hunting trips outside the city, and according to Noctis they’ve, all three of them, died several times. Never had Prompto been so glad for his friends unusual gift then when he tells him that he’s died more than Ignis and Gladio combined. “Its like death has it out for you,” he exclaims, frustrated and grieving a Prompto that isn’t dead, not anymore - curling up on the couch where they are shooting at zombies and laying his head on Prompto’s chest to make sure that his heart is still there, still beating.

\- When the word comes that Noctis is to get married, Prompto’s heart almost stops. He walks home in a daze, his head pounding, and somehow isn’t surprised when he spots Umbra curled on his steps - Pryna only ever comes by once she’s seen Noctis, and Umbra comes seperately because Luna doesn’t want the prince to know they’re in contact. He doesn’t know why, but since she’s his friend, he rolls with it. He crouches down to scratch behind Umbra’s ears as he reaches for the pouch attached like a harness to his collar, a pulls out a single sheet of paper.

\- 'I’m sorry,’ it says, and Prompto nearly cries when he realises she has written it on the back of a floral patterned piece of stationery; gold leaf imprinted on the front reveals it to be a save-the-date. Niflheim sure moves fast.

\- The king calls for all of them to assemble before they leave on a trip to Altissia - Ignis is staunchly refusing to call it a bachelor party (or gods forbid, something as crude as a stag’s night) but they all know that’s exactly what it is. Erring on the better side of caution, half of the luggage shoved into the boot is rolls of film for Prompto to make use of - Noctis rolls his eyes when he sees how they’ve prepared. “I don’t need photos to rewind,” he reminds them. “Just to make a long jump back.”

“Better to be safe then sorry,” Gladio says grimly, and no-one argues, even as Cor (who searches the car to make sure they have absolutely everything they need, since they are, after all, leaving the safety of Insomnia’s wall with the sole heir of Lucis in tow) raises an eyebrow at the sheer amount of film stocked alongside tents and fishing poles. “You planning to photograph every inch of Eos, kid?” he asks, and Prompto can’t do anything but chuckle nervously.

\- Finally, they’re off - but it doesn’t take long for things to go wrong. When the regalia breaks down, Noctis turns to Prompto, asking if he took any pictures shortly before they left Insomnia - but Ignis shuts that down. “Push,” he says, and though it’s tiring, sweat inducing work, in the end its all worth it, because that’s how he meets Cindy.

\- He thinks he may be in love. She’s clever and energetic and pretty to boot, and she isn’t afraid to yell at him a little when it’s revealed he was the one behind the wheel. As they leave Hammerhead he sighs, because even if it isn’t love he’ll still miss Cindy, and Noct reassures him he can borrow the car to visit if he wants.

\- He hesitates, and searches for a refusal that sounds realistic. He eventually babbles out something wanting to score his own wheels, which Noctis accepts even as Ignis eyes him dubiously.

\- Prompto dies. He doesn’t remember it, of course - one minute, sitting in a hotel room he’s fiddling around with his camera, taking candid shots of the others around the room in the soft grey light coming from the stormy sky through the windows as Ignis discusses what they should get to eat, the next - doing those same things, but Noctis is suddenly next to him, and holding a photo he knows he hasn’t taken yet.

\- Across the room, Ignis and Gladio fall silent as Noct takes in several shuddering breaths, looking hunted and shell-shocked as he wraps his arms around Prompto in a grip like a steel trap. His stomach sinks, because he knows this embrace - and he swallows as he moves to hug Noctis back, mentally adding another death to his own personal tally.

\- “What happened?” Ignis snaps out, and Noctis struggles to explain - Insomnia had fallen, Niflheim soldiers were everywhere, Prompto had gone out to get food and some opportunistic grunt had recognised him, and taken a shot before he’d even realised he was under attack. The hotel room key had been on him, and when they’d stormed into the room, the three others caught completely off guard, he’d lunged for the pile of photos Prompto had left scattered on the bed, using a random one that looked new enough to jump back through.

Ignis and Gladio exchanged glances. “Call Cor,” they said in unison, and Noctis did exactly that. Ten minutes later, after a heated phone call and looking about thirty years older, Noctis turned to them and said, “we have a mission to complete.” From Noct, a sentence like that would normally be said in a joking tone, but he was completely serious - Prompto knew that he wasn’t lying about Insomnia, and a chill ran through him as Noctis’ fingers sought his blindly.

\- It’s hard. Living life on the run, fighting with guerilla tactics - and then Luna goes missing. Iris had said she was alive, and Noctis somehow knew she had something for him - whether he knew this because Pryna had sneakily seen him in the middle of the night or because he’d jumped back quite away without telling them, Prompto didn’t know - but even though they’d heard she was in Altissia, and her dress was there on display and beautiful - Luna herself was gone, leaving only Gentiana behind.

\- Luna’s metioned Gentiana before - a mysterious woman, faithful to the Old Gods and the oracle; 'she never seems to age!’ she’d once written cheerfully in a letter. “Is Luna okay?” Noctis asks, and Gentiana smiles.

“She is the oracle,” she says, and her eyes linger on Prompto in a way that makes him tense. “You must trust in her, your majesty.” Stepping forward she reaches out to press something in Noctis’ hand. “She wanted you to have this,” she says, and walks away as Noct turns his hand over to reveal the Ring of the Lucii resting on his palm.

\- Later that night, when the others are asleep in the tent, Prompto is on watch, and nearly suffers a heart-attack as midnight black fur brushes against his leg. “Umbra?” He breathes, disbelieving, and his hands automatically, on well ingrained instinct, begin to search through his thick coat to pull open the pouch that must be on him.

\- It’s a photo he pulls out - years old and crumple, but recognisable: the first photo he ever took of Noctis, the one that had let him discover his powers of time travel and save Prompto’s life. Furrowing his brow - Noctis must have sent this to Luna via Pryna at some point - Prompto turns the photo over, looking for a message. Luna has never sent him anything pointless before.

\- Well, it seems like there really is an exception to every rule - because, though there are words written on the back of the photo in Luna’s familiar, elegant print, they don’t make any sense. 'The Answer,’ they say, and Prompto frowns in confusion, turning a quesitoning glance to Umbra. The dog stares at him solemnly, but as he makes to reach for a pen and paper, to continue the tradition of letter between him and Luna, he makes a slight yipping sound, and stands, turning to leave. Prompto stills, and in one of those rare, blazing flashes of insight that attack him at time, he realises what this means - Luna won’t speak to him anymore. She’s given him what she calls the answer, and now the oracle turns her back on him. He’s on his own.

\- In the morning, he doesn’t mention it - though after a few hours of thinking, thoughts he doesn’t want to admit to have begun to creep into his mind, and he glances at Noctis as he fingers the edge of the photo now stored within the breast pocket of his outer vest, wondering if he’s figured out just what Luna means.

“I don’t understand,” he whispers in his dreams, to Luna, to Gentiana, to the goddess - to anyone at all that is listening. “I’m not that important. How could I have affected anything to this point?” A gentle, feminine hand cups his chin, and Prompto looks up into eyes the pale blue colour of petals. She doesn’t say anything, only smiles - but Prompto knows anticipation when he sees it, and he swallows -

\- and wakes up gasping, choking on air. “Uggh,” Noctis moans, cuddled into him in the tent to try and absorb as much heat as possible; Ignis outside on watch. “Go back to sleep,” he complains, looping an arm around Prompto’s midsection to drag him back down. Once he’s once more laying flat back against the sleeping bags, the arm remains around him, and a different sort of choking threatens to overwhelm him as the answer - Luna’s answer, and now his, too - clicks into place.

“No.” Noctis’ eyes are wide and wild as they stand on the cliff overlooking Insomnia, rain falling down around them. “You’re crazy - I. No.” His voice is firm, and he shakes his head with every repeated denial, backing away from the photo Prompto holds out to him.

“This is what Luna wants,” he wheedles, not above manipulation if Luna, if the oracle is correct, and this will save everything they’ve lost. He’d told Gladio and Ignis that he’d wanted to spend some time alone with Noctis that afternoon, and since they’d both done the same thing multiple times over the trip, they hadn’t complained when he’d stolen the prince away - he knew they wouldn’t be coming here to help Noctis talk him out of this. “Noct, this is what I want.”

\- Noctis swallows. Prompto can see his throat and jaw work as his eyes well up and he chokes down tears. “But you have to be wrong,” he’s pleading, and it hurts to see him like this, oh god it hurts so bad. “You can’t have had that much of an effect - your existence - you’d never even left Insomnia!” He protested. “Me saving your life over and over again, it can’t have been the catalyst that set off Niflheim’s attack!”

Prompto makes his voice as gentle as he can. “The butterfly effect,” he says. “You can’t say those things for certain, Noct, not when you’ve never lived these events in a world without me.”

“And I don’t want to!” He bursts out, eyes begging for Prompto to understand. He steps forward, and for a brief second, Prompto thinks that he’s seen reason, that he’s going to take the photo and he won’t have to keep begging for his own death - because, regardless of whether Luna is right or not, this is really really hard and - and -

And his mind blanks, because Noctis hasn’t taken the photo - had instead stepped even closer, so their bodies were pressed up against one another, and kissed him.

\- He’s been kissed before, of course, several times over the years - but this kiss is different. It’s wild and desperate and Prompto has opened his mouth and is kissing back before he can even think, tasting both Noctis and rain as his friend - the best friend he’ll ever have, ever did have - tries to show him just how deeply he loves him.

\- “Yeah,” he whispers as he pulls back, and now he’s crying as well. “Yeah, me too.”

\- Noctis is trembling against him as he leans in for another kiss - gentler, less frantic this time - and Prompto doesn’t fight it, just gives Noctis whatever it is he needs for him to accept that this is the way things have to be. “Let’s let the world burn,” Noctis mumbles as he pulls back, but the fight has left his voice. “Just you and me, we don’t need anyone else.”

Prompto laughs, short and bitter, and presses the photo into Noctis’ hand, pulling it away from where it’s tangled in his shirt. “You and I both know better than that,” he says, and blinks wetness from his eyes - tears, rain, he doesn’t even know anymore. “And, Noctis? Don’t you dare forget about me.”

Noctis laughs too, and there’s really nothing funny about this situation. “As if I could,” he says, and there’s something final about the words, about the smile on his face when he speaks them.

\- Prompto smiles in response - for what he knows will be the last time - and, perhaps selfishly of him - hopes that Noctis burns the image, this moment, into his memory: after all, he won’t be there to capture those moments in film for him, not anymore.


End file.
